Here we are beginning the second year of the Obama administration....and it's deja vu all over again. 2010 will mark the 10th year of Dick Cheney's 'shadow' administration.

At the beginning of 2009, the 9th year of the Cheney 'shadow' administration, we saw still-vice-president Dick Cheney and his newly appointed Sec. of State, daughter Liz Cheney, frightening Americans in their tagteam efforts to keep Guantanamo open, keep torture on the table and keep 9-11 perpetrator trials, secret.

At the beginning of 2010, the 10th year of the Cheney 'shadow' administration, we see still-vice-president Dick Cheney and his Sec. of State, daughter Liz Cheney, frightening Americans into keeping Guantanamo open, keeping torture on the table and keeping 9-11 perpetrator trials, secret.

Can anyone tell me why Dick Cheney is still being asked for his opinion on these matters? Is it because the American public dearly loves the former vice-president, loved him when he was in office, respected everything about his leadership and are, therefore, still anxious to hear what he has to say about.....anything scary? Is it because the implementation of Cheney's torture policies, the opening of America's first secret gulag, and Cheney's most excellent fraud adventure in Iraq...have all worked out so well, making us all super-safer here in the U.S.?

Well.....no.

Americans who watch Dick Cheney on their teevees, the same Americans who told pollsters just before the Cheneys began their 9th year in office that they approved of Mr. 4th Branch by a whopping 18%, .....are being told by neo-conservative and Village defenders of Dick that Cheney continues to campaign for secret U.S. prisons, torture and never-ending war.....because he, with the deepest patriotic sincerity, just wants to keep America safe.

Is it possible...do you suppose....that Mr. 18% & OffSpring, are really only doing their damnest to prevent civilian criminal court trials of 9-11 perpetrators because Cheney's torture program might be revealed to the public?

Is that possible?

Cheney told ABC's Jonathan Karl yesterday that despite the fact that the Bush administration by 2005, you know, had convicted 195 suspects on terrorism related charges using civilian criminal courts.....

"Well, we didn't all agree with that."

Cheney said that there was a "major shootout" during the Bush administration in the Roosevelt Room between Justice Department people who "advocated that (rule of law) approach", and "many of the rest of us who wanted to treat it as an intelligence matter, as an act of war, with military commissions. We never thoroughly or totally resolved those issues. These are tough questions."

The Bush administration, by 2005, had overseen 195 convictions in U.S. criminal courts of terror-related crimes. The Bush administration had Mirandized Richard Reid in less than 5 minutes of his arrest and tried and convicted him in a civilian criminal court. Despite these facts, Mr. 4th Branch responded this way....

"You want my opinion, my view, of what ought to happen...
I think we should treat it as war....I think that's why we were successful for 7 1/2 years in avoiding a further major attack against the United States. And I do get very nervous and very upset when that's the dominate approach, as it was, sometimes, in the Bush administration, or certainly would appear to be, at times, in the Obama administration."

The Reverend paraphrases....

'We were successful for 7 1/2 years in avoiding a further major attack against the United States, because we (the Bush administration) treated terrorists and terrorism as a war......except for the 195 times we (the Bush administration) didn't.....and so I get nervous when a new administration seems to be treating terrorism and terrorists in the same way that we (the Bush administration) did.....which kept us safe for 7 1/2 years.'

Now, be honest. What the hell sense does that make?

Cheney: "I think we should treat it as a war."

Cheney: "That's why we were successful for 7 1/2 years in avoiding a further major attack against the U.S."

Cheney: "I disagreed with Bush's 195 criminal convictions (by 2005) in civilian criminal court, and the issue was never resolved."

The Bushies tried 3....count 'em....3 "terrorists" in military tribunals. Two were acquitted. The Bushies tried and convicted 195 "terrorists" in civilian criminal courts......yet "treating it as a war" was what kept the U.S. safe for 7 1/2 years.

Now, I'm no expert....but I pay attention.....and what I'm thinking here is that either Dick Cheney has lost his effing mind and is now resorting to flinging around the craziest sh*t he can think of....OR....desperation is really setting in on The Dick. Desperation marked by larger and larger nonsensical lies....bigger whoppers.

Why would Dick Cheney get so desperate?

Even one public civilian criminal trial of a major Gitmo detainee is a threat to Mr. Cheney. How? Using Cheney's one percent doctrine as a guide.......if there is even a one percent chance that the Cheney-ordered and approved torture program becomes public knowledge in open and transparent court proceedings, Mr. Cheney will be in danger of further prosecution from other countries who don't simply wink at war crimes like the U.S. does.